When Emory folks see VMAT2, they should think of two things: the neurotransmitter dopamine, and Parkinson’s research conducted by Gary Miller and his colleagues. They have made a case that activators of VMAT2 would be beneficial in Parkinson’s, but the drugs in the news were inhibitors, and presumably would make Parkinson’s worse.

VMAT2 (vesicular monoamine transporter 2) is responsible for transporting dopamine into synaptic vesicles, tiny packages for delivery. As Miller’s lab has shown, mice deficient in VMAT2 can be a model for the non-motor and motor aspects of Parkinson’s. In these mice, not only are certain nervous system functions impaired, but the dopamine packaging problem inflicts damage on the neurons.

Miller’s more recent work on a related molecule called SV2C is puzzling, but intriguing. The gene encoding SV2C had attracted attention because of its connection to the striking ability of cigarette smoking to reduce Parkinson’s risk, possibly mediated by nicotine’s effect on dopamine in the brain.

I say puzzling because SV2C’s role in brain cells can’t be described as easily as VMAT2’s. Read more

It is a privilege to work at Emory and learn about and report on so much quality biomedical research. I started to make a top 10 for 2014 and had too many favorites. After divertingÂ some of these topics into the 2015 crystal ball,Â I corralledÂ them into themes.

In a recent PNAS paper, Gary Miller and colleagues at Rollins School of Public Health outline a potential therapeutic approach to Parkinsonâ€™s disease that Iâ€™m going to call the Container Store approach.

If you have a mess in your kitchen or basement workshop, you might need more or better containers to hold your tools. Analogously, problems in Parkinsonâ€™s disease can be traced back to a lack of effective containers for the brain communication chemical dopamine.